This is followed by other decrees. Among them are the following:
Determining the right to practice hermeneutics:
The principles of theology involve hypotheses, leading to interpretations. As a result we hereby abolish all assemblies gathered for hermeneutical speculation and all other conduits for sectarian monopoly.
Just as I do not advocate the cause of one faction over another, I will not support the right of sectarian monopolies regarding interpretation.
Let there be competition to devise the best theology and the strongest readings and to compose the most cogent proofs. It may well be that those of you who are closest to the truth and to me — though he be a mere slave — will sow the seeds of reinvigoration and useful change in these lands.
Anyone who stands in the way of those who strive, interpret, and dispute, will be regarded by me no differently from a monopolistic tradesman or a highway robber. I have no part of him, nor he of me.
If anyone abuses my name or distorts my words, get rid of him and take him back to his seething pits and roaring follies.
Decree releasing earnings and abolishing taxes:
From al-Hakim to Husayn ibn Zahir al-Wazzan, Chief Secretary:
Praise be to God as He deserves:
I have become so that I now beseech and fear
None but my God in whom is all virtue.
My grandfather is Prophet, my imam my father
And my faith is loyalty and justice.
“All property belongs to God, may He be glorified! The people are God’s servants, and we are his trustees on earth. So release the people’s earnings and do not cut them off. Peace.9
“From today onward, all taxes on grain, rice, market tariffs, dates, soap factories are abolished. Judicial fees on wine, Ramadam alms, and complaint filings are also cancelled. I will be annulling other taxes too, once the level of the Nile improves and the river reaches its normal height.”
Decree on abrogation and occlusion:
I, al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah, have heretofore decreed that you should post insults about ancestors on street-gates and mosques and that you should also daub insults on shop walls, in the desert, and in graveyards. I have previously instructed my governors to do the same thing in their various provinces.
I now totally forbid you to do so.
Up till now I have permitted fermented drinks as a way of easing your concerns and melting some of your ice-cold miseries. As of today, I forbid you to consume any alco holic beverage even though the content be only one third. Even if the entire Nile consisted of alcohol, it would not be any more helpful to you. So dig up all vines and destroy all grapes and their byproducts. As long as you reside in my territories, make sure that you remain absolutely sober.
I have forbidden you to eat some foods favored by the exoterics, but as of today I find no difference or source of rancor between them and you. Eat what you wish and what is good for you. After all, every stomach will eventually taste death.
Decree forbidding flattery and seeking benefits:
Did I not tell you that I hated dogs?
Have you not realized that I issued a decree ordering that they be killed and that our kingdom be rid of them?
As a consequence I forbid anyone to kiss the ground beneath my feet. Anyone who does so will find me placing him in his own grave while still alive.
I have already instructed you not to pray for me in sermons and correspondence. Now I order you to make do with greetings to the Commander of the Faithful.
This then is my decision. So forget about me; take me out of your prostrations and fawnings. You will be free of my face, and yet you will find my aura even closer to you than your own jugular.
The decree is followed by a marginal note: No subject may demand of the Commander of the Faithful any increase in salary, additional position, ownership or exploitation of an estate, or any other kind of benefit beyond the demands of need and necessity.
As a consequence of these admirable decrees, the root causes of the tension and conflict that people had felt disappeared. They were able to resume their normal eating habits and pastimes. They revived their evening parties in the Qarafa Park, frolicked in the Nile waters, and played backgammon and chess. Women were able to dress up again and to sing …
Al-Hakim now became even keener than before to hold festivals over which he could preside. He attended the opening of the canal and the construction of its barrage, and allowed the Egyptians to use the occasion in order to celebrate and revere life in a variety of amazing ways, all accompanied by lavish banquets and the scents of musk and ambergris.
In the thirteenth year of al-Hakim’s quarter century, he was seized by a frenzied desire to bolster the Islamic faith, a move that was accompanied by expressions of a vicious hatred toward the People of the Book — Jews and Christians — and other protected citizens. He composed and published a decree in which he laid out his orders and his reasoning. He called it: The Decree restoring deference to the community of Unity. Among its contents is the following:
God is great, there is no deity but He. God is great, Praise be to Him, praise to the Possessor of glory and honor, the Creator of the universe and mankind, who alone determines death and eternity, who governs in matters of dispute, bringer of the dawn, creator of spirits, I praise Him and acknowledge His divinity and unity; I witness that Muhammad is His servant and prophet. O God, pray for Your radiant saint, Your great companion ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, bearer of the burdens of hope, destroyer of evil and the anti-Christ. O God, pray also for the Prophet’s pure grandsons, al-Hasan and al-Husayn, for the pious imams and the purest of the pure.
You have asked me to explain why I have ordered the destruction of the Church of the Sepulchre in Jerusalem and other churches in Egypt and Syria….
No, it is not because the sound of ringing bells, just like barking dogs, interferes with my intimate contacts with the kingdom of the heavens here in Egypt and in my other domains. No, it is not that, but much worse. I can see for myself, just as you can, the proliferation of crosses around us; church towers with crosses on top and people who carry them, they have all increased in number. I now ask myself whether this land is the land of Islam and the community of Unity or a haven for Christians and other sinners? Is this country for Muslims or non-Muslims? I have started to worry that the Trinitarian faith is gaining ground over us, that Christians will seek to do us harm and violate the honor of our community and its territories.